Water change?

[Jacob08]

My question about water changes is should I still change water everyday I have a bare bottom tank 80 gallon and my water food grade barrel is 200 gallons that i age 24 hours with air stone and heat then use prime I have been losing Young discus lately why who knows stop eating then waste away. I did 50% water change on April 13 and have not did a water change since and the fish seem more active then ever eating great. I use city water. Should I change my water change routine?

[strawberryblonde]

How often do you normally do water changes and what size are the discus?

It could be a problem with contamination in the aging barrel, but till we know more about the set up in your tank, the age of the discus, the size, other tank mates, etc we can't really make a good guess at what the problem is.

[Eddie]

Might be better to post in the disease section and fill out a questionnaire.

[Jacob08]

The aging barrel is a new brute can 44 gallon from home depot I just setup a 200 gallon food grade barrel so that will be the new way from now. The discus are 3 months old. Tank mates are 2 German rams 3 ottos and one bushy Plecoptera female the tank has drift wood in it and silk plants bare bottom water changes were 50% daily. Running a fluval G6 filter and it has sponge on the intake tube also there is a hydro pro sponge filter temp is 87f 80 gallon tank

[Jacob08]

I have already done this form on the disease section with no help been thru the meds also fish still dropping 6 dead in 2 months why who knows that's why juvies are cheaper?

[Jacob08]

I'm asking about water changes here not disease

[strawberryblonde]

Ok, so unless your water change equipment is contaminated with something (mold, fungus, bacteria, etc) or the equipment itself isn't food safe, there's no reason why water changes would make your discus die and/or not eat.

I checked out some of your past threads. Are any of your older discus from 2010 and 2011 still alive? If not, what happened to them? I'm looking for any reasons that you might be having a hard time raising discus.

Also, your 2011 had health problems. Are you using the same equipment that you used last year for water changes? Same filters? Same driftwood, etc? If so, unless you thoroughly sterilized ALL the equipment, the tank, and the decor, you may have cross contaminated these new discus.

Now on to the current tank of fish. They are 4 months old now. Hopefully they have reached 3" - 4"? If not, there is definitely something breaking down in your grow out procedures.

I'm not sure if there's any help that I can offer beyond giving you some ideas for where things might be going wrong. If it was me, I'd have put such a small number of very small discus into a much smaller tank of their own and raised them without any decor, but that's just me. I tend to think that you can offer cleaner water (easier water changes), a cleaner tank (it needs to be wiped down regularly) and more frequent feedings in a smaller undecorated tank that doesn't include any other types of fish.

[Jacob08]

Can water changes stress them out like when you drain the tank down to one inch of water then hit them with 3/4 inch hose return line with water that has been aged . Fast refill same temp

[Skip]

what kind of hose are you using

[Jacob08]

3/4 clear vinyl tubing from Dr fosters and smith

[Skip]

3/4 clear vinyl tubing from Dr fosters and smith

good

[strawberryblonde]

Can water changes stress them out like when you drain the tank down to one inch of water then hit them with 3/4 inch hose return line with water that has been aged . Fast refill same temp

Sure, a violent water change could stress them out a bit, but discus quickly become accustomed to whatever the "norm" is for your water changes, and once they've adapted they shouldn't get very stressed over it.

You said that you do 50% WC's each day anyways, so there's no reason why the water level would be down to 1 inch, right?

Can you answer my questions about their size, whether or not you are using old equipment from your other discus tanks and whether or not your discus from 2011 survived?

I don't think this is an issue with water changes, I think there's something else going on and I'm willing to help if I can get a clear picture of what's happening with your tank.